Confederate Detour

— Wilson - Kautz Raid —

In June 1864, to deny Gen. Robert E. Lee the use of the South Side R.R. and the Richmond and Danville R.R., Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent Gen. James H. Wilson and Gen. August V. Kautz south of Petersburg on a cavalry raid to destroy track and rolling stock. Kautz's force passed here on June 23 on the way to Burkeville. Wilson's force, close behind, destroyed three warehouses containing cotton as well as railroad track, ties, and other supplies here. Before leaving, Wilson was given incorrect directions by a local citizen who sent him on the Hungarytown Road several miles away from the main rail line, which was along the Court House Road. Former Congressman and Gen. Roger Atkinson Pryor, a native of Nottoway County, was riding with Gen. W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee's cavalry when it arrived here. Pryor directed the Confederates to a shortcut at Hardy's Fork to allow Lee's cavalry to get in front of Wilson. The two forces collided just a few miles east of Nottoway Court House as Wilson tried to regain the road.

"Having nothing to destroy at Black's and White's [Kautz's force] moved on, the advance body going up the railroad to Nottoway Court House which they did not burn but left for the rear (Wilson's) force to do." - Capt. Richard Irby, Nottoway County Commissary Officer

"General Pryor advised a detour [at Hardy's Fork] from Wilson's line of march by a near route over to the Poor House road onto the Grove by the house and late home of James T. Epes [Walnut Hill], saving the pursuers a distance of two miles and enabling General [W.H.F.] Lee to be waiting when the Yankees reached the Grove." - Peter B. Epes

Sidebar: Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton
Eighty-three years before the Wilson-Kautz Raid, in July 1781 during the Revolutionary War, Schwartz's Tavern and several other sites were the subjects of another cavalry raid. British Gen. Charles Cornwallis ordered Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton and 300 cavalrymen from Cobham (site of the present Jamestown Ferry) to Bedford County to destroy Continental supply and ammunition depots at Amelia Court House and Prince Edward Court House. Tarleton's command passed through Prince George, Burkeville, Meherrin (then Moore's Ordinary), Charlotte Court House, Flat Creek, Blackstone, and Smokey Ordinary, all of which figured in the Wilson-Kautz Raid. During Tarleton's raid, his men had the famous fight with Peter Francisco at Benjamin Ward's Tavern on West Creek, just outside of present day Crewe. In addition to supplies destroyed, Tarleton's expedition tied up more than 2,000 Virginia militia and Continental troops who might otherwise have reinforced Gen. Nathanael Greene in North Carolina.

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Blackstone
Nottoway Training School
Blackstone College
Jamestown Oaks
Blackstone Female Institute
Creation of Camp Pickett
Union Academy
Fort Pickett
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